THE FAEMER'S INTEREST IN GAME PROTECTION. 



EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ORNITHOLOGY, 

 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Introduction. 



It is imfortimate that so many farmers evince little or no 

 interest in game protection. Some regard game laws as of no 

 advantage to the farmer, but rather as class legislation for the 

 benefit of the sportsman. Nevertheless, the protection of 

 game affects the agriculturists more vitally than any other 

 element of our population. The farmers own the greater 

 part of the land, and the game is more accessible to them 

 than to any other class, for they live upon the land where 

 the game is. Game conservation is advocated under our 

 present system not solely to furnish sport for a limited num- 

 ber of individuals, but to protect useful species of birds and 

 mammals for the benefit of the whole people. Rational game 

 protection should so work out as to restrict injurious species 

 to some extent, to protect the land owner against law-break- 

 ing, trespassing hunters, and to create a community of in- 

 terest between the farmer and the sportsman. The principle 

 that game is the property of the State is now well established;^ 

 and has been sustained by the higher courts; but bj^ means 

 of laws against trespass, which have been enacted simul- 

 taneously with the game laws, the farmer who posts his land 

 against hunters or trespassers has been given practical control 

 of the game so long as it remains on his land, and the exclu- 

 sive privilege of hunting it there during the open season.^ 

 In Massachusetts he is even allowed by law at any time to 

 kill deer that are injuring his crops, and also to collect dam- 

 ages from the State for such injury. Game laws tend to 

 limit the number of hunters and to shorten the season during 

 which hunting is legal. They also protect most insect-eating 



1 The possession of a hunting license gives no privilege to hunt on the posted land of another. 



